Chapter Sixteen

The Diary of Lily Evans

Harry followed her down the flights of stairs and into her office on the second floor. Her office had bookshelves along the walls filled with books and on her desk were pictures facing her chair that were hidden form Harry's view.

"Sit, Mr. Potter," she said pointing to a chair in front of her desk.

Harry set his bag down near the chair and sat down.

"I am not sure if I am the person to tell you this, but Peeves was referring to your mother, Lily," she said trying to hide her tears in her face.

"You knew her," Harry asked stunned.

"Yes, I knew her," her tears slowly disappearing and with a smile. "We were in the same year and house. She, as Peeves said, was a know-it-all, but your friend, Miss Granger, is more of one than Lily was. We were both close friends and I had an opportunity to visit her family during the summer. I met her sister, Petunia, and she wouldn't stay in the same room as me; if see can that is. I think it was jealousy that drove her away from her sister and the threat of the Dark Lord that was present at the time."

"My Aunt Petunia jealous?" Harry asked shocked.

"I think it was, and she fears for her life since at that time; there was danger. She also hoped that if she moved as far away from Lily as possible; she and her recent family after she had married will be safe. During Petunia and Lily's parents' funeral, since it was only their immediate family. A clause in their will stated 'if Petunia does not settle her affairs with Lily; she forfeits any inheritance toward her son when he comes of age'."

"What happened?"

"Well, Vernon thought it was a mistake and tried to pry it from Lily's hands. Your father thought otherwise, he cursed him and Petunia told Vernon what Lily was. Vernon was as angry as ever since that incident."

"That is why he hates me."

"That may be the reason since they were told of the amount that you and your cousin might inherit from them. Your aunt and uncle fear that they might loose that inheritance, and your uncle confronted your father in an attempt to apologize and to tell him to stay away from his family. They had an heated argument since Vernon made, what James thought, were serious insults but with the threat of being jinxed again, Vernon backed off; with the help of Lily who had tried to calm your father from doing what he said he was going to do, of course."

"That may be the reason that he does not like unusual things in their house."

"True, but with the threat of the Dark Lord's return; Petunia now fears for her family's life and she kept you in the house. I have one thing that I was keeping for you, but since Peeves let slip of me being friends with her," she bent over and pull out a book that was in a cabinet.

It was a thick book that looked perfectly preserved and on the cover were golden letters etched on the cover: Property of Lillian "Lily" Evans. "Your mother's diary, Harry," she said handing the book to Harry with renewed tears in her eye and a smile.

Harry hurried to the library two flights up with the diary in his bag. He tried to keep his mind on his studies, but the thought that he had his mother's diary with him weighed on his mind. He spent his nights reading it and anytime that he was alone which was hard since a recent blizzard kept all students indoors. He read the diary and found out that Lily disliked what James had done to other students, but she had a secret crush on him. Harry was surprised that his mother had a crush on James since James had a tendency to curse other students; one of them was Severus Snape. Harry also read that Lily always followed the rules to the book and did all of her homework the day it was assigned.

The day before the start of the term, Harry was reading his mother's diary until he fell asleep. He was walking the corridors of Hogwarts when he came across an open door where three other figures were standing in deep conversation.

"It has been fifty years since Salazar left Hogwarts and made that threat," said a well built man with hair that started to turn gray wearing red robes.

"Yes Godric, and we haven't found out what he is hiding in this school," said the graying hair witch in blue robes.

"I still fear what Salazar has planed of this school," said the graying hair witch yellow robes.

The witch in blue gave out a deep sigh and consulted a crystal ball. The crystal ball started emitting clouded images. She waved her hands over the crystal ball and gave a small sigh.

"I see something," she said giving out a gasp.

"What is it Helga?" the man called Godric asked.

"I see three figures united under a single banner vanquishing a great evil," she said in a calm voice.

A crash woke Harry up with a start, he pulled back the curtains and he saw Neville getting off his feet. As it turned out, Neville tripped over his trunk waking everyone in the room. Harry changed and left for the Great Hall for a quick breakfast before his fist lesson.

"Now everyone," Professor Pierce said went the bell rang, "we will now review how to do the Patronus charm before we start learning how to think under extreme pressure."

For the first half hour, the class reviewed how to produce a patronus and the majority of the class now can produce one; except for a few Slytherins, which included Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Crabbe, and Goyle. The rest of the class was spent learning how to think under extreme pressure. Harry was able to do the lesson almost flawlessly ending up missing the bewitched target he was supposed to hit. They rest of the class had a harder time than Harry; except for Hermione, who was able to keep her head cool was able to do almost as well as Harry. Harry laughed silently as Malfoy had a very hard time since Harry knew that Malfoy was thinking of showing Harry that he could do better.

After class ended, the class was given homework to do an essay over a chapter that was about thinking under pressure. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were on their ways from the Great Hall after lunch for Charms when they were stopped by Malfoy. Malfoy looked around and Harry was sure that there was no teachers in earshot.

"You think that you can do better than the rest of us Potter?" he sneered.

Harry didn't say anything but helped Hermione stop Ron from attacking Malfoy. Malfoy, seeing this, started taunting them and about their families. Ron was now starting to fight his way toward Malfoy but was restrained by several Gryffindors causing the Slytherins around them to laugh. Malfoy took out his wand and pointed at Harry. He muttered a spell, but Harry dodged and the spell hit a suit of armor. There was a startled scream as the suit of armor fell on the ground.

The suit of armor had fallen on Professor McGonagall and she gave Malfoy a stern look, "That will be fifty points from Slytherin and detention for a month for your actions."

Charms class was quite eventful and fun. They learned how to conjure items. Hermione was quite good at making chairs appear earning Gryffindor ten points. Harry succeeded just after her also earning Gryffindor ten points.